Pump-governor.



J. McMANAMY & A-. REID.

PUMP GOVERNOR.

AVPLICATION FILED APR-20. I914 1,156,165; --Patented 00 0.12, 1915.

.tiNrrn srAaras Q rA'ra ora ion j JOHN McivI'ANAMY, or GRAND R PIDS, AND ANDREW REID, or SAGINAW, MICHIGAN.

" PUMP-GOVERNOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 12, 1915.

Application filed April 20, 1914. Serial No. 833,120.

To (LZZ'IUILOWL it may concern Be it known that we, J OHN MCMANAMY and ANDREW REID, citizens of the United States of America, residing at Grand Rapids and Saginaw, respectively, in the counties of Kent and Saginaw, respectively, and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pump- Governors; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in pump governors, and more particularly to governors to be applied to steam actuated air compressors for locomotives and automatically actuated by the air pressure produced by the said compressor, and its object is to provide a device of this character which will be simple in construction and effective in operation, and to provide the same with various new and useful features.

as hereinafter more fully described and-particularly pointed out in the claims.

As locomotilves are commonly built, the air compressor is located at the side of the boiler directly in front of the cab and the.

which the valve actuating'piston is located for the purpose of relieving the steam which leaks to the under side of the piston. This type of governor is objectionable for various, reasons: First, because the steam escaping from the necessary vent will, especially in cold weather, cloud the windows of the engine cab thus obscuring the view. At-

7 tempts have been made to overcome this diiiiculty by piping the exhaust from the vent away from t e cab window but the, steam in such pipe will condense and freeze in cold weather and render the device inoperative. Secondly, the necessary joints in the steam pressure line to insert a governor therein may become loose and leak, and furthermore, if a governor between'the engine driving the compressor and the boiler should become inoperative it would be necessary to close down the compressor while repairing the governor; and thirdly, the lubrication which is commonly fed to the engine driving the compressor by being injected into the steam before it enters the engine driving the pump Will leak past the valve in the governor and a portion of it be lost through the vent therein.

The above objectionable features are obviated by this invention in which the governor is located in the exhaust from the com-' pressor' engine and adapted to restrict the same, thereby creating a back pressure which a I slows or stops theioperation of the engine, hence the compressor, and located in this way the governor may also be placed at a consid-- erable distance from the compressor engine, and as the exhaust side thereof is open to the atmopshere it is possible to provide an interior vent passage through which th steam from the under side of the valve operating piston of the. governor may escape directly into the exhaust pipe.

The fact that the governor is on the exhaust side instead of the inlet side of the compressor engine makes it possible to remove the governor for repairs and still operate the compressor by temporarily controlling the exhaust by a manually operated valve, and as the steam entering the governor has already performed its function and the same has been utilized there is no loss of .the same by leakage in this device. r

A preferred embodiment of our invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing which consists of a sectional view of the governor in closed position, and also one form of air control valve partially in section which must be used to admit air pressure to the governor to actuate the same.

Like numbers refer to like parts.

1 represents the valve body having an inlet 2 and an outlet 3'with a valve 4 of the piston .type interposed .therebetween. The valve stem' l extends upward into a, cylinder 5 formed integral with the valve body 1 and a piston 6 within said cylinder is provided on the upper end of the stem. The piston is normally raised by a spring7 which yieldably holds the valve open permitting free passage therethrough. I

The pipe 8 attached to the inlet side of the governor leads from the exhaust side of the compressor engine and the pipe 9 at the outlet of the governor communicates with the open air at any convenient point, as for instance, on a locomotive it preferably communicates with the exhaust leading from the engine cylinders. A, small passage 10 is provided in the partition of the valve body which passage provides a constant communication between the two sides thereof, preventingan absolute closure of the passage therethreugh and the valve '1 is tubular to near its upper end and a duced by the air com 'n'essor through the pipe 13. A valve 11- being yieldably closed by a spring 15 normally prevents admission of the compressed air to the cylinder 5, but when the air pressure which enters the valve 12 beneath a diaphragm 16 is sutlicient to overcome the tension of the spring 15 the valve 14- will be raised, permitting the compressed air to flow into the cylinder to depress the piston 6 therein and close the valve 1. A small air vent passage 17 is provided beneath the valve 141,

v which allows the air to escape from the cylinder 5, this passage being so small that it will not prevent proper pressure on the piston 6 so long as the valve 1 1 is open, but after the said valve isclosed the pressure within the cylinder 5 will be gradually relieved, allowing the piston to rise and permit the valve 4 to open. This air control valve let-forms no part of this invention but is merely illustrated as the preferred means of admitting air to the cylinder 5 at the proper time and any other suitable form ofcontrol valve may be substituted with equally etficient results.

The operation of this device is as follows:

Assuming the piston 6 to be raised and the valve 4: open, the exhaust from engine for the air pump passing through the pipe 8 will pass freely through the open valve and be emitted through the outlet pipe 9. Under these conditions the compressor engine exhausts freely and drives the compressor to raise the air pressure in the tanks, etc., provided for it, but when the said pressure, communicating-with the air control valve 12 through the pipe 13, is suflicient against the diaphragin 16, to compress the spring 15 and raise the valve 14, the ccmpressed air is then admitted to the cylinder 5 above the piston (i which forces ,it downward closing the valve 4:. This immediately cuts off the exhaust passage from the engine except for the restricted passage 10,

and a back pressure is created in the ex haust which prevents the operatlon of the engine except very slowly as the exhaust escapes through the said passage 10. The purpose of this small passage and slow operation of the engine is to prevent condensation 0t steam in the pipe,'which would result were the engine to stop entirely. With the valve thus closed the pressure on the inlet side of the governor will cause some steam to leak past the valve stem 1 into the cylinder-5 beneath the piston 6 and the steam thus entering the cylinder, as well as any leakage past the piston from the upper end of. the cylinder, will escape through the 'vent 11 and thence into the exhaust side of the governor and out through the pipe 9 without being vented into the open air directly at the governor.

Vl hen the air pressure in the system is lowered the tension of the spring 15 will be suthcicnt to again close the valve 1 1 and the compressed air in the cylinder 5 will then be relieved through the small air vent 17, allowing the piston 6 to rise by action of the spring 7 and open the valve 4, thus permitting the engine to again operate the compressor to bring the air pressure up to the maximum whereat the governor will repeat the above deseribed operation.

What we claim is v 1. Tlie'method of controlling an air com: pressorengine, consisting of interposing a throttle valve in the exhaust of the same and providing automatic means for adjusting thevalve to restrict the exhaust from the compressor engine as the air pressure produced by the compressor is increased. I

2. In combination with an air compressor engine, a throttle valve arranged in the exhaust passage of the same, and means for automatically closing said valve operated by air pressure produced by the compressor.

3. A compressor governor, comprising a throttle valve arranged in the exhaust passage of the compressor engine, a cylinder and piston to adjust the valve, means for admitting pressure to the piston to close the throttle, a spring to open the throttle and a vent opening between the cylinder and the outlet side of the throttle.

at. A compressor governor, comprising a throttle valve arranged in the exhaust pass sage of the compressor engine, a cylinder and piston to adjust the valve, means for automatically admitting pressure to the cylinder above the piston to close the throttle, a spring to open the throttle, and a vent opening communicating with the cylinder beneath the piston and with the outlet side of the throttle.

5. A compressor governor, comprising a throttle valve arranged in the exhaust passage of the compressor engine, a cylinder and stem being axially chambered and said the cylinder beneath the piston and with the V I chamber opening through the lower end of said chamber in the stem.

the valve andcommunicating with the eX- In testimony whereof We afiix our sighaust side of the throttle when the valve is natures in presence of two witnesses.

,5 closed, a piston in said cylinder attached m OH MCMANAMY vto the upper end of said stem, means for ANDREW REID automatically admitting pressure to the upper side of the piston to close the valve, Witnesses:

a spring to open the valve and a vent open- T; H. DAVIDSON,

10 ing inthe valve stem communicating with THOMAS E. SWAN. 

